Antonios D. Mazaris

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki | AUTH · Department of Ecology

Spatial conservation prioritization is traditionally focusing on ensuring the representation of species populations and habitats within protected areas. Recently there has been an increased interest in incorporating connectivity into planning, with higher priority given to areas exhibiting strong ecological linkages. We introduce three metrics (s‐c...

GuardIAS is a three-year Horizon Europe project starting in January 2025, uniting diverse expertise to address aquatic invasive alien species (IAS) management. This multidisciplinary initiative comprises seven interconnected work packages targeting all invasion stages (pre-border, border, post-border) to develop tools for disrupting invasions. Guar...

Individuals with ambulatory difficulties frequently face significant barriers to participating in coastal recreational activities due to inadequate infrastructure and maintenance. This study evaluates the needs and habits of wheelchair users to assess the economic value of beach recreation for this group in Greece. Through a combination of economic...

Systematic conservation planning (SCP) is essential for meeting global conservation goals and mitigating anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity. Effective conservation planning should incorporate the threedimensional nature of ecosystems, including species distribution by depth. Recent advancements, like the 3D prioritization approach, address this...

The Barcelona Convention (BC) aims at biodiversity conservation in the Mediterranean Sea, including in its Annex II a list of threatened species that need protection. This study aimed to assess existing scientific effort and knowledge on the invertebrate species of BC Annex II, through a systematic literature review. For the 52 invertebrates of Ann...

The Mediterranean Sea hosts a diverse array of marine species, including the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), a keystone species for conservation efforts. However, knowledge of its nesting localities within the Aegean Sea, particularly in the northern regions, remains limited. Here, we report the first documented instances of successful log...

We aimed to assess the social-ecological roles of marine alien species in the eastern Mediterranean Sea – a global hotspot of bioinvasions and local extinctions – and their potential contribution to reaching Targets 1, 3, 10, and 11 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). We employed a comprehensive methodology, incorporating a...

Conserving marine megafauna is a complex task, particularly due to the gaps in our knowledge regarding their distribution and susceptibility to human pressures. While the Ionian Sea, eastern Mediterranean, is renowned for hosting nesting sites for sea turtles and supporting diverse cetacean populations, identifying key marine habitats for elusive s...

Anticipating and mitigating the impacts of climate change on biodiversity requires a comprehensive understanding on key habitats utilized by species. Yet, such information for high mobile marine megafauna species remains limited. Here, we compile a global database comprising published satellite tracking data (n = 1035 individuals) to spatially deli...

This supplementary file includes information on: • Monitoring nesting beach habitat selection and use (Section S1.1), monitoring nesting beach macro-environmental properties and changes in beach profile (Section S1.2) and monitoring human presence and impacts from anthropogenic activities (Section S1.3) o Relevant pilot case studies (Section S2) •...

In the face of environmental change, high-quality and fine-scale information is essential in order to monitor the highly dynamic environments on land and sea. While traditional approaches to data collection face a number of practical limitations, advanced technologies could supplement and further improve our efforts. Taking sea turtles as a modelin...

Rising temperatures due to global warming over the last decades pose threats to marine biodiversity. Sea turtles are ectothermic species, and their embryonic development depends on nest conditions, particularly temperature. Here, we explore how increasing and extreme temperatures within the 558 nests can impact the hatching success of two sea turtl...

Population declines of vertebrates are common, but rebuilding marine life may be possible. We assessed trends in sea turtle numbers globally, building 61 time series of abundance extending beyond 2015, representing monitoring in >1200 years. Increases were widespread with significant upward trends, no significant change, and significant downward tr...

Conserving marine megafauna remains a challenging task in light of the gaps in knowledge concerning their distribution and their exposure to human pressures. This is particularly evident in the case of charismatic sea turtles, which traverse a number of marine and terrestrial habitats throughout their life history. Here, we offer a synthesis of cur...

Coastal areas provide cultural ecosystem services that contribute to the well-being of society, but these areas are often undervalued due to methodological challenges. Assessment of the economic value of beach recreation is crucial for effective coastal management and conservation. This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of recreational ecos...

Marine harmful algal blooms (HABs), caused by various aquatic microalgae, pose significant risks to ecosystems, some socio-economic activities and human health. Traditionally managed as a public health issue through reactive control measures such as beach closures, seafood trade bans or closure of mollusc production areas, the multifaceted linkages...

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) provide a range of aesthetic and recreational benefits. However, they have not been extensively assessed due to methodological challenges, despite their use and non-use values for local and wider communities. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the economic importance and spatial distribution of recreational divi...

Natural resources conservation is considered indispensable for a sustainable future. A thorough managerial analysis of the current and future conservation and availability to meet future demands is both necessary and challenging. As water of adequate quantity and good quality is required for a favourable condition of natural ecosystems and for agri...

Analyzing and simulating the availability of natural resources to meet current and future needs is an emerging and challenging task. The current study proposes a comprehensive methodology for managing Water-Ecosystems-Food (WEF) in the Kokkinorema River Basin, a highly intensive agricultural area in Northern Greece, under the challenging conditions...

It is widely acknowledged that both human activities and climate change have a significant impact on the safety of water quality. The current study examines the temporal change in the quality of surface water systems in the Kokkinorema basin; a highly productive agricultural water basin in northern Greece.

Biological invasions, resulting from human activities, exert substantial impacts on ecosystems worldwide. This review focuses on marine invasive alien species (IAS) in Europe, examining the current state, proposing strategies to address the problem, and offering recommendations for enhanced management. Effective management of biological invasions r...

A meta-analysis and map of the monetary value of Meditteranean seagrass ecosystem services. The Mediterranean ecosystem services are valued at 6.7 billion dollars, emphasizing the need to protect these "hidden treasures". This valuation helps policymakers and stakeholders recognize the tangible benefits provided by seagrass meadows, which can lead...

Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are periods of abnormally warm ocean temperatures that severely impact marine ecosystems. Although they can propagate beneath the ocean’s surface, MHWs are typically assessed using sea surface temperatures. Here, we investigated the future evolution and depth penetration of MHWs across the Mediterranean basin. Our analysis r...

As climate-related impacts threaten marine biodiversity globally, it is important to adjust conservation efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Translating scientific knowledge into practical management, however, is often complicated due to resource, economic and policy constraints, generating a knowledge-action gap. To develop potentia...

For marine species, traveling with the current potentially reduces energetic costs. Still, the extent to which organisms adjust routes to follow current flow remains an open question. Moreover, the extent to which climate change is altering sea currents, and in turn species migration routes, remains unknown, representing a major challenge to spatia...

Rapid anthropogenic climate change is driving threatened biodiversity one step closer to extinction. Effects on native biodiversity are determined by an interplay between species' exposure to climate change and their specific ecological and life-history characteristics that render them even more susceptible. Impacts on biodiversity have already bee...

Climate change impacts on vertebrates have many implications. The thermal conditions of vertebrates during incubation are known to influence morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits. Thus, incubation temperatures have consequences for ecological and evolutionary processes, and for certain reptiles can determine sex. For oviparous reptile...

A potential strategy for marine species to cope with warming oceans is to track areas with optimal thermal conditions and shift their spatial distributions. However, the ability of species to successfully reach these areas in the future depends on the length of the paths and their exposure to extreme climatic conditions. Here, we use model predicti...

Stamatiadou, V, Mazaris, A, Mallios, Z, & Katsanevakis, S 2022, ‘Marine protected areas and recreational diving in the Aegean Sea’, paper presented at the 4th ESP Europe Conference: Ecosystem services empowering people and societies in times of crises, Heraklion, Greece, 10-14 October 2022.

Environmental policies, including the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), generally rely on the measurement of indicators to assess the good environmental status (GES) and ensure the protection of marine ecosystems. However, depending on available scientific knowledge and monitoring programs in place, quantitative GES assessments a...

Stamatiadou, V, Mazaris, A, Mallios, Z, & Katsanevakis, S 2022, ‘Valuation and mapping of the recreational diving ecosystem service of the Aegean Sea’, paper presented at the ECSA 59:Using the best scientific knowledge for the sustainable management of estuaries and coastal seas, Kursaal, San Sebastian, Spain, 05-08 September 2022.

Assessing whether marine protected areas (MPAs) will maintain stable climatic conditions over time is a major scientific challenge. Yet, such assessments often rely on sea surface temperature data, largely ignoring the vertical dimension of the ocean environment. Here, we estimated the climate space of global marine protected sites and investigated...

Dugongs (Dugong dugon) experienced a serious population decline in China during the twentieth century, and their regional status is poorly understood. To determine their current distribution and status, we conducted a large-scale interview survey of marine resource users across four Chinese provinces and reviewed all available historical data cover...

Dugongs (Dugong dugon) experienced a serious population decline in China during the twentieth century, and their regional status is poorly understood. To determine their current distribution and status, we conducted a large-scale interview survey of marine resource users across four Chinese provinces and reviewed all available historical data cover...

Understanding the processes that underlay an ecological disaster represents a major scientific challenge. Here, we investigated phytoplankton and zooplankton community changes before and during a fauna mass kill in a European protected wetland. Evidence on gradual development and collapse of harmful phytoplankton blooms, allowed us to delineate the...

Extreme regional ocean warming events, like marine heatwaves (MHWs), could have severe and long-lasting impacts on species and ecosystems. Extreme and persistent warming of the ocean could directly threaten survival of marine species, as exceeding their thermal tolerance often leads to massive mortality events. Similarly, MHWs could further threate...

Given the accelerating rate of biodiversity loss, the need to prioritize marine areas for protection represents a major conservation challenge. The three-dimensionality of marine life and ecosystems is an inherent element of complexity for setting spatial conservation plans. Yet, the confidence of any recommendation largely depends on shifting clim...

Sea level rise could result in the loss and shrinkage of coastal habitats, jeopardizing the persistence of a number of species that rely upon these highly dynamic and sensitive areas. With reproduction and population recruitment depending exclusively on low-lying sandy beaches, marine turtles are among the organisms for which sea level rise represe...

Given the accelerating rate of biodiversity loss, the need to prioritize marine areas for protection represents a major conservation challenge. The three‐dimensionality of marine life and ecosystems is an inherent element of complexity for setting spatial conservation plans. Yet, the confidence of any recommendation largely depends on shifting clim...

There is an intense interest in long-term trends of species abundance that may reflect, for example, climate change or conservation actions. Less well studied are patterns in the magnitude of inter-annual variability in abundance across large spatial scales. We collated abundance time-series for 133 nesting sites across the globe of the seven sea t...

Global efforts to halt biodiversity loss mandate the establishment of protected areas. In the face of habitat loss and climate uncertainty, large-scale networks of protected areas connected by corridors are needed to increase the dispersal and persistence potential of biota. For example, the recent European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 defines cl...

In the pelagic food web of lakes, zooplankton offers the linkage between phytoplankton and fish, greatly affecting but also mirroring the functionality and stability of the ecosystem. Despite the increased interest on the development of water quality indices, incorporating zooplankton data on metrics used for the assessment of natural lakes remains...

Understanding how climate change would affect biota inhabiting sensitive and highly valuable ecosystems, spanning broad regions, is essential to anticipate implications for biodiversity and humans, and to identify management and mitigation measures. Traditionally, assessments to evaluate climatic risks over broad regions and for many species, imple...

While polyandry in sea turtles is indicated through multiple-paternity analyses of off�spring, confirmed observations of the same female mating with multiple males are extremely challenging to obtain. To contribute to this discussion, we analysed a long�term photo-identification database (>20 years) of adult male and female loggerhead sea turtles...

Climate plays a major role in shaping biodiversity patterns over time and space, with ongoing changes leading to the reorganization of ecosystems, which challenges conservation initiatives. Identifying areas that could serve as possible climate-change refugia for future biodiversity is, thus, critical for both conservation and management. Here, we...

Sea turtles are highly mobile species that use oceanic, neritic, and coastal habitats as nursery, foraging, wintering, breeding and migration areas at distant locations throughout their lifetime. Due to their highly migratory nature and large-scale habitat use, they are subjected to multiple threats across marine and coastal ecosystems that can im...

Sea turtles are highly mobile species that use oceanic, neritic, and coastal habitats as nursery, foraging, wintering, breeding and migration areas at distant locations throughout their lifetime. Due to their highly migratory nature and large-scale habitat use, they are subjected to multiple threats across marine and coastal ecosystems that can imp...

Delineating priority areas for highly mobile marine megafauna represents a major challenge for conservation biology. To manage such areas, one must understand both their spatial properties (i.e., location, number, extent), and the level of exposure to a number of given pressures. Here, we used a combination of ensemble distribution models, field-ba...

Shifting distribution to track suitable climate is a potential strategy for marine species to cope with ocean warming. Yet, the ability of species to successfully reach future climate analogs largely depends on the length of the paths that connect them, and on the exposure of these paths to extreme climates during this transition. Here, we evaluate...

The Black Sea remains one of the most fragile marine systems globally. The six countries that share the coastline of this semi-enclosed sea have declared, through the Convention on Biological Diversity and regional conventions, their intention to conserve biodiversity and increase the coverage of the protected areas. However, currently only a small...

Marine Ecosystem Models (MEMs) provide a deeper understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development has highlighted the need to deploy these complex mechanistic spatial-temporal models to engage policy makers and society into dialogues towards sustainably managed oceans. From our shared...

Identification of important habitats of charismatic marine megafauna is essential to enhance our conservation capacity. Still, for species like sea turtles that have a long-life span, a complex life history and a highly migratory nature, spatially delineating important marine areas is not a simple task. Even in the case that such areas could be ide...

ContextLandscape connectivity quantification is essential to achieve effective conservation of wildlife. Graph theory is a common mathematical framework for representing habitat patch networks and evaluating their connectivity.Objectives While several graph-related indices have been used for this purpose, there is still need to evaluate landscape c...

The magnitude and frequency of extreme warming events over the last decades pose threats to biodiversity. In the near future, heatwaves will become even more frequent and longer-lasting. As ectothermic species, sea turtles are particularly vulnerable to climate change, with their reproductive success and offspring sex ratios dependent on in-nest co...

Rising ocean temperature impacts the functionality and structure of ecosystems, further triggering the redistribution of biodiversity. Still, the magnitude and anticipated impacts of ocean warming are not expected to be uniform across marine space. Here, we developed a two-fold index-based approach to provide an integrated climatic vulnerability as...

Context National borders remain an impediment to efficient preservation of biodiversity and ecosystems. For transboundary water resources, conservation planning becomes more challenging, as competitive interests make these sensitive and productive systems focal points of interstate conflicts. Objectives This global study aims to explore the patter...

Climate change is postulated to alter the distribution and abundance of species which serve as vectors for pathogens and is thus expected to affect the transmission of infectious, vector-borne diseases such as malaria. The ability to project and therefore, to mitigate the risk of potential expansion of infectious diseases requires an understanding...

Like most ocean regions today, the European and contiguous seas experience cumulative impacts from local human activities and global pressures. They are largely in poor environmental condition with deteriorating trends. Despite several success stories, European policies for marine conservation fall short of being effective. Acknowledging the challe...

Climate change (CC) is a key, global driver of change of marine ecosystems. At local and regional scales, other local human stressors (LS) can interact with CC and modify its effects on marine ecosystems. Understanding the response of the marine environment to the combined effects of CC and LS is crucial to inform marine ecosystem-based management...

The Mediterranean Sea is subject to multiple human pressures increasingly threatening its unique biodiversity. Spatially explicit information on the ecological status of marine ecosystems is therefore key to an effective maritime spatial planning and management, and to help the achievement of environmental targets. Here, we summarized scientific da...

Green Infrastructure (GI) is defined as a network of natural and semi-natural areas that is strategically designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services and to enhance human wellbeing. In Europe, the GI concept has been strongly related to the concepts of multifunctionality, climate change, and green growth, particularly in the...

ContextArtificial light at night (ALAN) represents a significant threat to biodiversity. Given that protected areas (PAs) are in relative darkness compared to the surrounding sites, they could be considered an effective tool towards eliminating the impacts of ALAN. However, the extent to which climate change-induced shifts would drive species out o...